Ercilla fire, 4 February 2023 Victoria, Ercilla
The fire started on 4 February 2023 in Ercilla, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,013 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 17th largest in Región de La Araucanía since 2016 (of 159 with a page). Number 25 in Chile in 2023, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 5,013ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 4 Feb 2023 – 14 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 4 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 219
- in a single hotspot: 104 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 29 ha in 2018, 355 ha in 2019, 2,054 ha in 2020, 395 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,395 ha that had burned before.
- 1,052 ha Victoria fire, March 2020 2,332 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 486 ha Victoria fire, March 2020 1,464 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 260 ha Victoria fire, February 2022 1,233 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 ha Ercilla fire, February 2020 1,031 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
2,721 ha reached on 1 Feb2.2 %
-
Ercilla where it started2,297 ha reached on 31 Jan4.6 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jan | 25.9 °C | 48 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 1 Feb | 24.9 °C | 44 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Feb | 27.5 °C | 36 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Feb | 38.1 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Feb | 34.9 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Feb | 27.1 °C | 42 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Feb | 28.0 °C | 37 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Feb | 27.6 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Feb | 27.4 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 9 Feb | 28.4 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Feb | 25.9 °C | 43 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Feb | 25.9 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Feb | 21.6 °C | 59 % | 40 km/h | 1.7 mm | Low 7 |
| 13 Feb | 20.9 °C | 44 % | 38 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 14 Feb | 20.0 °C | 52 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 15 Feb after | 21.3 °C | 53 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 16 Feb after | 20.2 °C | 38 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 17 Feb after | 25.7 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Feb after | 27.0 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Feb after | 25.0 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 20 Feb after | 25.3 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Feb after | 26.2 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Feb after | 26.8 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 23 Feb after | 26.7 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 24 Feb after | 24.5 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 5 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 784 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 441: 29 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 219Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 8,056 haTraiguén4 February 2023 · 14 days · 11 km away
- 10,542 haCollipulli1 February 2023 · 10 days · 12 km away
- 13,252 haLos SaucesDecember 2021 · 7 days · 27 km away
- 12,385 haTraiguénMarch 2025 · 6 days · 28 km away
- 11,526 haMulchén3 February 2023 · 10 days · 29 km away
- 7,915 haPerquenco26 March 2026 · 5 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ercilla fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 February 2023 and 14 February 2023: 11 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,013 hectares (50.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Victoria (2,721 ha, 2.2 %); Ercilla (2,297 ha, 4.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chile (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 130 (CONAF) · 132
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.